Health Care Policy and the Next U.S. Administration

"The best health care system in the world," says President George W. Bush. Yet, the World Health Organization ranks U.S. a dismal 37, with France and Italy among the top two. And the U.S. comes in dead last on most measures of performance when compared to other advanced nations, cites a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund.
The U.S. health care system is a critical issue in the current presidential campaign, with Barack Obama and John McCain each offering a remedy. But many Americans haven't a clue to what's crippling our system, much less the cure. Join noted health care economist Jonathan Gruber as he diagnoses our ailing health care, explains why other countries' systems are in better shape, and offers a recovery plan—in light of the acute financial crisis—to our next president.
JONATHAN GRUBER, a professor of economics at MIT, served as the deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department from 1997-98, was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2005 and, in 2006, received the American Society of Health Economists Inaugural Medal for best health economist in the nation aged 40 and under. He was appointed in 2006 to the board of the Massachusetts Insurance Connector, the state's ambitious health care reform effort, and was named the 19th most powerful person in health care in the United States by Modern Healthcare Magazine. In 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.